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On the Validity of Season of Birth as an Instrument in Wage Equations: A Comment on Angrist & Krueger's "Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Scho

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Author Info
John Bound
David A. Jaeger

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Abstract

In an important and provocative paper, `Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?', Angrist and Krueger use quarter of birth as an instrument for educational attainment in wage equations. To support a causal interpretation of their estimates, they argue that compulsory school attendance laws alone account for the association between quarter of birth and earnings. In this note we present evidence that the association between quarter of birth and earnings is too strong to be fully explained by compulsory school attendance laws in the samples studied by Angrist and Krueger. Moreover, while the association between quarter of birth and educational attainment was weaker for more recent cohorts, we found no evidence that the strength of the relationship between quarter of birth and earnings was also weaker in those cohorts. In addition, we present evidence that suggests the association between quarter of birth and earnings or other labor market outcomes existed for cohorts that were not bound by compulsory school attendance laws. Our results call into question the validity of any causal inferences based on Angrist and Krueger's estimates regarding the effect of education on earnings.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 5835.

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Date of creation: Nov 1996
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5835

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J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Solon, Gary, 1992. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 393-408, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Griliches, Zvi, 1977. "Estimating the Returns to Schooling: Some Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 1-22, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Isaac C. Rischall, . "The Roles of Education, Skill and Parental Income in Determining Wages," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 29, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
  2. Sprietsma, Maresa, 2007. "The Effect of Relative Age in the First Grade of Primary School on Long-Term Scholastic Results: International Comparative Evidence using PISA 2003," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-037, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  3. John Bound & Gary Solon, 1998. "Double Trouble: On the Value of Twins-Based Estimation of the Return to Schooling," NBER Working Papers 6721, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Aakvik, Arild & Salvanes, Kjell G. & Vaage, Kjell, 2003. "Measuring Heterogeneity in the Returns to Education in Norway Using Educational Reforms," IZA Discussion Papers 815, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  6. Del Bono, Emilia & Galindo-Rueda, Fernando, 2004. "Do a Few Months of Compulsory Schooling Matter? The Education and Labour Market Impact of School Leaving Rules," IZA Discussion Papers 1233, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. David Card, 2000. "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems," NBER Working Papers 7769, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Peter Ebbes & Michel Wedel & Ulf Böckenholt & Ton Steerneman, 2005. "Solving and Testing for Regressor-Error (in)Dependence When no Instrumental Variables are Available: With New Evidence for the Effect of Education on Income," Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 365-392, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Xin Meng & Robert Gregory, 2007. "Exploring the Impact of Interrupted Education on Earnings: The Educational Cost of the Chinese Cultural Revolution," IZA Discussion Papers 2548, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  10. Philip Oreopoulos & Marianne E. Page & Ann Huff Stevens, 2003. "Does Human Capital Transfer from Parent to Child? The Intergenerational Effects of Compulsory Schooling," NBER Working Papers 10164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Scott J. Adams, 2002. "Educational Attainment and Health: Evidence from a Sample of Older Adults," Education Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 97-109, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Page, Marianne & Stevens, Ann & Oreopoulos, Philip, 2005. "The Intergenerational Effects of Compulsory Schooling," Working Papers 05-19, University of California at Davis, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Vegard Skirbekk & Hans-Peter Kohler & Alexia Fürnkranz-Prskawetz, 2003. "Completing education and the timing of births and marriage: findings from a birth-month experiment in Sweden," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2003-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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